detlef Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 OK, so it seems the logic board on my Mini is fried and replacing it will cost nearly as much as replacing the whole computer. It's about a year out of warranty so I basically need to suck it up here. I don't do anything all that fancy on my computer which is why I was in the lowest end mini to begin with. None the less, it still seemed painfully slow at times. Even slower, it seemed than my old G4 tower which had half the processor and, I think, half the RAM. By the way, this continued even after I got the new Office made to run on Intel Macs. My wife used a mini at a job and was also never particularly thrilled with it. Now, the new one still costs the same as the one I bought 2 years ago ($600) but has nearly twice the RAM. Dude at the store opened up a bunch of apps (including office apps), started some downloads and had the vizualizer going on itues, etc. It seemed to chug along fast enough. Of course, the ones at the store are always pretty damned quick. My debate is between going with another Mini and hoping that the new souped up RAM will make it perform well enough or to jump up to the basic iMac for twice the price. The monitor is much, much nicer than my existing one and the processor, hard drive, and (I think) RAM are also way higher than the mini. It also comes with a super drive as opposed to a combo but that has never been an issue for me. Technically, we can afford either but that's because we typically don't make a habit of spending money we don't need to spend. I'm also not too concerned about the fact that the other mini pooped out on me. I've never had issues with mac durablity before and am assuming (and was assured by the "genius" fwiw) that I'm simply victim of "one of those things". Things break and this time it happened to me. I don't think there's any more to it than that. I'm trying to make this a matter of whether or not the iMac will be able to keep up with software upgrades for longer than the mini due to it's beefier stats. I'd love to hear from either someone who'll assure me that I'll be cool with the new mini or someone who says that the iMac is so much better, I just have to go for it. TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big F'n Dave Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 Love my iMac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimC Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 The most expensive one Best Buy sells for gaming. :drool: Hippie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiley Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 (edited) I just bought 3 new Imacs for my designers. I think they ran around $1200 a piece. They'll be good for at least 4-5 years with a few upgrades. Minis are built as is, an Imac can be upgraded and expanded. It'll be worth it in the long run. Here you go: IMAC 20" 2.4 GHZ 1GB/250/SD/2400 XT $1154.99 I also bought a mac mini 1.83GHZ/1GB/80/Combo/BT/AP for $574.99 to serve as a host for a small Mac server. Edited September 18, 2008 by twiley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moneymakers Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 OK, so it seems the logic board on my Mini is fried and replacing it will cost nearly as much as replacing the whole computer. It's about a year out of warranty so I basically need to suck it up here. To me this tells me you got burned. 1 year out of a warranty that you spent $$$ on and now you have nothing. You want to go out and buy the same thing with more ram. Ram is cheap. bought this 6 months ago. works great. has t.v. tuner built in. 64 bit processor for the future. vista flies on it. DVD burner included and video card is awesome. http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0288747 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted September 18, 2008 Author Share Posted September 18, 2008 OK, so it seems the logic board on my Mini is fried and replacing it will cost nearly as much as replacing the whole computer. It's about a year out of warranty so I basically need to suck it up here. To me this tells me you got burned. 1 year out of a warranty that you spent $$$ on and now you have nothing. You want to go out and buy the same thing with more ram. Ram is cheap. bought this 6 months ago. works great. has t.v. tuner built in. 64 bit processor for the future. vista flies on it. DVD burner included and video card is awesome. http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0288747 I did not buy the warranty. It was the one that came with the machine. Crap happens. Like I said, not only have I never had a problem with Macs breaking down on me, they've always been stand up about dealing with anything remotely their fault. Thanks anyway but I was pretty much looking for feedback from other Mac users. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted September 18, 2008 Author Share Posted September 18, 2008 I just bought 3 new Imacs for my designers. I think they ran around $1200 a piece. They'll be good for at least 4-5 years with a few upgrades. Minis are built as is, an Imac can be upgraded and expanded. It'll be worth it in the long run. Here you go: IMAC 20" 2.4 GHZ 1GB/250/SD/2400 XT $1154.99 I also bought a mac mini 1.83GHZ/1GB/80/Combo/BT/AP for $574.99 to serve as a host for a small Mac server. Those are both of the machines I'm looking at. Right now, I'm leaning towards the iMac. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caveman_Nick Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 Buy the iMac. I have bought over 50. since the iMac G5 design came out. They run like champs. As Twiley said, it has a long shelf life. I just retired some 10 year old macs form service. With the iMac, and with any mac, load it up with RAM. The more RAM, the happier and faster the computer will be. It will run extra, but it's worth it in what you get back. In 3 years when it seems like it's getting "slow", double the amount of RAM in it instead of getting a new computer. It will do wonders for the machine as RAM requirements for software and OS increase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cunning Linguist Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 Like Nick and Twiley mentioned, iMac's will run great and last years w/ram upgrades. It's usually a good idea to get the fastest one available, but a small jump in processor speed won't be noticed unless you run processor intensive apps like we all do. I bought two iMacs last year and will get a couple more in the fall for my staff since we're flushing out the G4 towers. We still have a PowerMac 7300/200mhz running OS9, connected to the server which runs OSX. It's the only machine that will drive an old drum scanner that i just can't get rid of. I think the box was made in 95', and the monitor on it is an original apple 13" rgb crt that i picked up in 89'. Talk about longevity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted September 18, 2008 Author Share Posted September 18, 2008 'Nuf said. iMac it is. Heading to the store right after I finish my lunch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted September 18, 2008 Author Share Posted September 18, 2008 It's so pretty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiley Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 It's so pretty Yeah, they're sharp looking. I'd love one of those IMACS just to clear up the mess I have now but I need the power. I'm running a large tower 2x2 gHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon with 2GB 667 MHZ DDR2 with dual monitors. It's far from sleek and takes up most of my desk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpholmes Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 It's so pretty Upgrade it to 4GB of RAM through a 3rd party RAM dealer like Crucial and you'll be pretty and fast as hell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted September 20, 2008 Author Share Posted September 20, 2008 OK, all I can say is wow. I wasn't able to bring my new baby home until tonight because they had to pull my hard drive out of my old mini (again, wouldn't turn on) and transfer it's contents to the new machine. Came home, plugged it in, and everything worked 100% right out the gate. I have my itunes hooked up through an airport express to my stereo system. Found it instantly and I was playing music throughout my house no sooner than I launched itunes. It's as if nothing ever happened only I'm now looking at a super sweet monitor and everything runs 4x as fast. Refusing to go mac makes about as much sense as insisting on getting your steak from Golden Corral. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.